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Toxicodryas blandingii (HALLOWELL, 1844)

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Higher TaxaColubridae, Colubrinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Blandings Tree Snake 
SynonymDipsas Blandingii HALLOWELL 1844: 170
Triglyphodon fuscum DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1854
Dipsas Blandingii — HALLOWELL 1854: 100
Dipsas Fischeri JAN in DUMÉRIL 1859: 212
Triglyphodon fuscum var. obscurum DUMÉRIL 1861
Dipsas fasciata FISCHER 1856: 84 (fide HALLERMANN 1998: 202)
Disas valida FISCHER 1856: 87
Dipsas globiceps FISCHER 1856: 89
Toxicodryas blandingii — HALLOWELL 1857: 60
Dipsas regalis JAN 1871: 3
Dipsas globiceps var. tumboensis MÜLLER 1885: 688
Dipsadomorphus blandingii — WERNER 1899
Dipsadomorphus blandingii — STERNFELD 1917
Boiga blandingii — SCHMIDT 1923: 103
Boiga blandingii — MENZIES 1966
Boiga blandingii — PITMAN 1974
Boiga blandingii — RASMUSSEN 1979
Boiga blandingi subfulva STUCKI-STIRN 1979: 381
Toxicodryas blandingii — MEIRTE 1992: 110
Toxicodryas blandingii — TRAPE & ROUX-ESTÈVE 1995: 40
Boiga blandingii — BROADLEY 1998
Toxicodryas blandingii — RÖDEL et al. 1999
Boiga blandingii — HUGHES 2000
Boiga blandingii — GOSSMANN et al. 2002
Toxycodryas [sic] blandingii — TRAPE & MANÉ 2002
Boiga blandingii — PAUWELS et al. 2004
Toxicodryas blandingii — TRAPE & MANÉ 2006
Toxicodryas blandingii — CHIRIO & LEBRETON 2007
Toxicodryas blandingii — ULLENBRUCH et al. 2010
Boiga blandingii — SEGNIAGBETO et al. 2012
Toxicodryas blandingii — WALLACH et al. 2014: 733
Boiga blandingii — CARLINO & PAUWELS 2015
Toxicodryas blandingii — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 511
Toxicodryas blandingii — GREENBAUM et al. 2021 
DistributionW Kenya, Uganda, Republic of South Sudan (RSS), Angola, Gabon,
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia,
Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea (Conakry), Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Congo (Brazzaville), Zambia

Type locality: "Liberia, West Africa."  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesHolotype: ANSP 10083 (fide Greenbaum et al. 2021, although reported as lost by previous authors), a 1670 mm specimen (Blanding) (fide V. Wallach, pers. comm.) 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Toxicodryas blandingii, as recognized herein, is restricted to West Africa and west-central Africa (west of the confluence of the Congo and Ubangi rivers), defined by the following combination of characters: maximum SVL > 1 meter (vs. maximum SVL < 1 meter in T. pulverulenta and T. adamanteus sp. nov.); DSRN 23–25 (vs. 19–21 in T. pulverulenta and 18–23 in T. adamanteus sp. nov.); DSRM 21–25 (vs. 19–21 in T. pulverulenta and 18–21 in T. adamanteus sp. nov.); cloacal plate usually divided (vs. divided or undivided in T. vexator sp. nov., and always undivided in T. pulverulenta and T. adamanteus sp. nov.); adult males glossy or velvety black with a yellow venter, and adult females light brown, gray, or yellowish-brown with light-brown or cream cross-bars on the flanks, with yellowish-brown venters (vs. both sexes brown to pink with darker cross-bars that often enclose a whitish spot, and the dorsum and venter sprinkled with fine dark brown or black spots in T. pulverulenta and T. adamanteus sp. nov.); hemipenis relatively short and massive (i.e., broad), proximal third covered with spines, distal two-thirds dimpled with a flattened apex (vs. relatively long with long spines mid-way along the shaft that decrease in size towards the apex and base, and with a domed apex in T. pulverulenta and T. adamanteus sp. nov.); venom toxicity LD50 = 2.85–3.55 mg/kg in mice (vs. venom toxicity LD50 = 4.88 mg/kg in mice for T. vexator sp. nov.) (Greenbaum et al. 2021).


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CommentVenomous!

Sexual dimorphism: This species is highly sexually dimorphic, with blotchy brown females and subadults, and black and yellow phase adult males.

Similar species: Pseudohaje goldii (similar to adult males), T. vexator Greenbaum et al. 2021.

RASMUSSEN (cited as “pers. comm.” in GOSSMANN et al.) states that there are no constant differences between African and Asian Boiga species.

Types: The types of Dipsas valida and Dipsas globiceps appear to be destroyed accodring to J. Hallermann (pers. comm.). The type locality of D. valida is “Edina (Grand Basso County, West Africa)”.

Type species: Dipsas Blandingii HALLOWELL 1844: 170 is the type species of the genus Toxicodryas HALLOWELL 1857.

Habitat: fully arboreal (Harrington et al. 2018). 
EtymologyNamed after Dr. William Blanding (1772-1857), American naturalist and a friend of Hallowell.

The genus was named after Greek toxin = poison, and ‐Dryas (noun, Δρῠᾰ́ς, meaning “tree nymph”). 
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